A large number of people think that digital communication will replace human interaction, resulting in a weakening of social abilities. While both digital communication and human interaction are crucial for society, I believe that digital communication will offer more benefits. In this essay, I will elaborate on some considerations regarding my attitude.
First, the main reason for online communication is flexibility. With smartphones, social media, and etc, people can connect to each other without hesitation with the distances. For example, we could catch up with our friend who lives abroad anytime and they can easily respond as well. Another consideration is that internet communication offers accessibility. In social media, we could join the forums that enable people in every world to connect and discuss the current situations.
One of the advantages of digital communication is the convenience. Digital communication allows us to connect with people everywhere. For instance, in a long-distance relationship the media helps couples communicate and exchange the information real-time. Secondly, online communication offers video calls that can enhance cost-effectiveness. With this condition, we could arrange the meeting online to discuss business things regardless of geographical barriers. For example, during the pandemic era people changed the way they communicated to online platforms, which gave them ideas to reduce the costs, especially for meetings.
However, an obvious disadvantage is the increase in screen time. Excessive screen time can cause a lack of social skills. This behavior can negatively impact mental health and physical well-being. For instance, someone who spends most of their time on social media will get addicted, leading to bad dietary habits. Another concern is failure to concentrate in a classroom situation. Students who already rely on social media sometimes have a short span of attention that they could not focus in class for over two hours. This habit will affect their future, that they can not compete with global changes.
In sum, it seems to me that the digital platform has so many more benefits such as flexibility, accessibility, and convenience while the drawbacks could be suppressed with hybrid teaching methods and screen time limitations.